


Heathens

by Huggle



Category: The Alienist (TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Horror, Protective Laszlo Kreizler, Serial Killers, Shaken John Schuyler Moore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:01:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27016198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huggle/pseuds/Huggle
Summary: Their latest killer targets those considered heathens, in a brutal manner, and leaves a horrific gift for Laszlo in his house that is also a warning.As he cares for John after, Laszlo becomes determined this case won’t end like the last.
Relationships: Laszlo Kreizler & John Schuyler Moore
Comments: 7
Kudos: 20
Collections: Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2020





	Heathens

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to know what the gift is before you read on (it’s nasty), please see the end notes.

There’s no point in appealing to the police, Laszlo knows. It makes no difference that they stopped the killings, that they solved a series of murders the authorities could not.

They are loathed, and yes, he’ll admit it gives him fear. John, Sara, Cyrus, Stevie, himself. They are all vulnerable, it’s been proven, and it feels they’re caught between a darkness on each side.

But they can’t stop. Not when the things lurking in that darkness are hungry for blood and for salvation, are both torment and tormented.

It’s as much the same with the man they hunt now, even though Laszlo doesn’t know his name or his appearance. He feels like he knows everything else, and it’s why he cries out to John to stop, not to pick up the book lying there on the desk in Laszlo’s study.

Later, they find the lock on the back door forced, and signs of where else their unknown quarry (though now it seems their roles have been reversed) had been through the house.

For now though, John looks down at Laszlo’s alarm, and Laszlo can see the moment he realises the book is not leather bound. That the words in it are not written in ink.

He drops it, face twisted in horror, and backs away. He looks from his hands to the book and back, but Laszlo is ready and grabs hold of his wrists before he can panic.

“Here, it’s alright. John, it’s alright.”

John’s breathing hard, holding on. They’ve seen so many horrors of late, and John, strong though he is (though Laszlo suspects his friend is very good at hiding the times when he is not strong), is not as resilient for these things as Laszlo is.

Laszlo, after all, knows full well the monsters that hide within the human psyche, that have to be brought out into the light and thereby confronted and controlled. 

There’s a sink in the next room, and he turns on the faucet, soaks John’s hands and grabs at the carbolic soap even as he yells for Cyrus.

He’s scrubbing John’s hands as Cyrus comes pounding up the stairs, and Laszlo’s yells bring him to where they are and not, thankfully, the study.

“Bring me some brandy, please,” he says. “There’s a...a book on the floor, in the study. Don’t touch it. And please...call Miss Howard and ask her to come here.”

John calms, slowly, and Laszlo wonders which of the poor _heathens_ their zealot has killed this time, skinned, for the purpose of inscribing his favoured bible verses in his tainted tome.

By the time Sara arrives, Cyrus has helped him sit John down in the kitchen, and he looks less like he’s just handled a book made of a murdered soul than he did even fifteen minutes earlier.

The police will have to be told, Laszlo knows it. But first, he leaves Cyrus to watch over John and to make sure Stevie stays there with them when he returns.

And he takes Sara upstairs with him, to learn what they can, though he prepares her first.

When John comes upstairs to help, Laszlo doesn’t try to dissuade him. The shock of it is over, and he alone, with gloves to protect him, handles the book.

It was a person, once, he reminds himself, and reads it to John who quickly writes down the contents.

Once the police arrive, they will take it, and Laszlo doubts they’ll be made privy to any findings the authorities make, unless Sara can spy for them.

But for now, he’ll learn what he can, make sure his friends are not too shaken from the ‘gift’ left for them, and then set all his power to identifying this person.

And apprehending him, because if their previous investigation taught him anything it’s that the damaged psyches they pursue can pose as much of a threat to the people he cares for as they can to their intended victims and Laszlo is not going to let any harm befall another member of his family.

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a book made of human skin and written in human blood. John picks it up before he realises what it is and has a bit of a freak out.


End file.
